OK, I’m sure you’ve been in a meeting that’s been routinely interrupted by people on their mobile devices.
They’re checking email, texting, or surfing the Web. Whatever.
Now, beyond this display of incredibly rude behavior consider the consequences this has on office productivity.
I’m sure that you’ve had this happen to you before:
You’re in a meeting, people show up and immediately pull out their laptops, tablet or smartphone and then they get working on what they consider “apparently more important” than the meeting at hand. Their participation and contribution to the meeting is little at best!
Not long ago, I stumbled on a startling survey of 1000 British office workers… and what they uncovered was worrisome and alarming. They discovered that 41 percent of the officer workers in meetings are compulsively checking their devices, texting, listening to voice mail and sending emails. They are obsessed!
An obsession that’s described best as a burning need that’s so powerful that…. they must take phone calls, respond to texts, and stay present on social media in a desperate attempt to stay constantly connected!
As you know, not having the full attention and focus of every person in the meeting creates significant problems and often results in a failure to achieve the meeting’s objectives due to:
- Having to repeat information that’s already been covered to distracted participants
- Participants fail to fully understand the issues in question
- Creativity diminishes, and
- Decisions take longer to make
Now, if you’re considering a new technology like Unified Communications… which introduces services Instant Messaging, presence information, telephony and video conferencing to in an attempt to boost employee productivity… it is crucial that you provide the proper ‘etiquette training’ to your staff on the appropriate time and place to use these tools!
Otherwise, you’re just arming people with more tools to promote this incredibly rude behavior!
